


Somniloquy

by KNACC



Series: Love the Long Way Around [6]
Category: Borderlands
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 22:32:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7951732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KNACC/pseuds/KNACC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things finally come to a head between Maya and Krieg while they're in the middle of a mission to find a vault on a distant planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Somniloquy

Maya should have known this was a trap from the beginning.  Empty streets as far as the eye could see but plenty of signs of recent habitation?  What else could it have been really.  She grimaces as she hears the nearby doors fly open, flooding the square her and Krieg have just entered with townsfolk armed to the teeth.  She clamps down on her urge to reach for her gun and instead reaches out to touch Krieg.  She can feel the muscles in his arm tightening under his skin already, like a rubber band about to snap. "I've got this," she says, squeezing his arm, "just hold on for a bit."  She notices out of the corner of her eye that he turns his whole head to look from her hand to her face in quick succession but he doesn't reach for the axe or his guns.   _ Good _ , Maya thinks,  _ maybe we won't have to kill anyone. _

Maya takes her hand off Krieg and then holds both her hands up in a gesture of peace.  Not that she needs her guns or that based on the way the townsfolk are holding theirs she wouldn't be able to outdraw them, it's just that she figures negotiations will go better if they aren't outwardly being threatened.  She looks around and she knows far too well what the looks on their faces mean, has seen it time and again when she's looked at the people of Sanctuary or Athenas.  They're scared and scared people do dumb things.  Best not to aggravate them.  "We mean you no harm," Maya shouts, her eyes panning the crowd in hopes of finding a leader of sorts who can be negotiated with. "My companion and I only came here in search of supplies and possibly informati-"

An older man who holds his shotgun with a bit more confidence than the rest steps forward and cuts her off, "We know who you are, Siren, you can cut the act."

Maya struggles to keep from rolling her eyes and just manages it.  "I am a siren, but aside from that I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

The older man doesn't have as much restraint and rolls his eyes.  "You're Maya, leader of the rogue group of thrill seekers who took down Hyperion Corporation and leave only destruction in their wake.  You're also worth about seven hundred billion dollars, dead or alive.

Krieg growls at that and she can almost hear his teeth grinding. She turns to look at him and grins, hoping how unworried she is about all of this is apparent from her expression.

"What are you grinning about, honey?  Didn't you just hear me threatening you?"

Maya sighs; she's never been as good at diplomacy as she'd like.  She squares the man with an icy stare and says, "Yeah and that wasn't very smart of you.  If you really wanted me dead, why haven't you opened fire yet?  You had a perfect opportunity when we first entered this square and you wasted it, why?"

The man opens his mouth to speak but a younger woman who is holding one hand up and pointing her gun at the ground cuts him off.  "We don't want to fight, we just want you to leave," she says all in one breath.  "There's no way we could deal with the blowback if Dahl ever found out we'd helped you and we've all heard about how you vault hunters run Sanctuary with an iron fist so Jeremiah here convinced us to make a strong show of force and scare you off.  Now that I've seen you with my own eyes though, I think maybe you'll just leave if we ask, right?"  She looks at Maya, her eyes big and hopeful.

Maya looks around at all the scared faces and feels a pit open up in her stomach.  So they're not just scared, they're scared of her; more like Athenas than she'd originally assumed.  Maya sighs.  They could use the supplies but she's not going to put these people's lives at risk when her and Krieg's situation is far from dire.  She meets the woman's eyes and nods. "We'll leave the way we came and you'll never see us again."  

"Thank you," the woman says, tears welling up in her eyes.

Maya nods again and then looks at Krieg and smiles. "Let's get out of here," she says quieter, "we'll just have to catch our dinner again tonight."

"Free meat is fun meat," Krieg says, voice a low growl.

Maya chuckles a little and shakes her head.  "Well I'm glad you're enjoying yourself even if the resulting meals are a little… gamey for my taste."  Prometia has even less edible wildlife than Pandora as far as she's concerned.

They're almost out of the square when Jeremiah's smug voice calls after them, "Good, you take your dog and run!"

In an instant, Maya turns around, feeling the rush of her power swell within her as she squeeze her hand into a tight fist at her side.  She can count on one hand all the times she's been this mad and in moments like this, she's glad for the monks' training in spite of everything because without it, she would have already crushed Jeremiah like a grape.  She breathes through her nose, tries to steady herself.  She can feel the heat radiating off her arm and she's sure it's glowing.  She looks up and sees exactly what she expects, scared faces and the ends of guns pointed at her.  She knows there's still a chance to not kill anyone here but she'll be damned if she's going to just lets a comment like that slide.

"Don't talk about him that way," Maya says, voice sounding icey even to her own ears.  "You might not respect me or what my group does, but this man has done more for the galaxy and been through more hell than a coward like you will ever understand."  She grimaces but manages to not reach out and pick him up.  It'd be so easy and she knows technically that she could do it without hurting him but at the moment, she's not sure she trusts herself.  

"Fuck you," Jeremiah spits back and goes to pull the trigger.

With a thought, she grabs the gun with her phase orb then crushes it into a ball of useless scrap metal.  A look of horror crosses Jeremiah's face and she can feel Krieg reaching for his gun beside her.  She reaches out to steady him and finds that the contact brings her some peace of mind as well.  "Come on, Krieg," she says, shaking her head as she clamps down on her powers, "he's not worth it."  She and Krieg turns around and without a single backwards glance, walks out of the city and into the wilderness.

****

Traveling with Krieg is always a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to noise.  Sometimes he's very loud, running his mouth constantly about what seems at first glance like the most random of things.  Maya's realized by now though there's a rhyme to it, if not always a reason and that sometimes a violent, strange story can be understood if one pays enough attention.  Other times though, he's perfectly silent, retreating into his own head for sometimes several days at a time. Now is one of those times and while Maya usually doesn't mind, after her display earlier today she could use a bit of a distraction from herself.  They're about an hour out of Dahlton when Maya finally gives in and does some talking herself.

"I'm sorry, okay?" she says, stopping dead in her tracks and turning to look at Krieg.

It takes him a moment to realize she's stopped moving but once he does, he turns around to face her, tilting his head in confusion.

"Not for what I said obvious.  I meant every word of that-"

Krieg starts laughing, a loud, ugly laugh as if she's just said the funniest thing he's ever heard.

She narrows her lips.  Is he just hysterical from the earlier stress or does he actually think her opinion of him is ridiculous?

As if to answer her question, Krieg chokes out between laughs, "NO ONE CAN DETHRONE THE TRASH KING!"

Maya frowns.  "Come on, I'm not joking and you know it."  She steps closer and shakes her head.  "I'm just... apologizing for not keeping my cool back there.  I know our group dynamic, not just between you and me but with everyone really, well it depends on me being the even keeled one at all times and I fucked it up back there."

Krieg's stopped laughing by this point, his one visible eye just staring at her until suddenly he's stepping forward, closing most of the distance between them in one stride.  Maya is not a short woman but at this range and at his full standing height, her eyes are level with his chest.  She feels her cheeks heating up and she forces herself to look up and meet his face; now is no time to be checking him out.  

He's already looking down at her, his head slightly tilted and then he reaches out with one giant hand and sets it on top of her head.  "The rage tendrils grope us all," he rumbles, eye meeting hers.  He starts to say something else but it quickly turns into a growl and then he's looking away from her and shouting at the sky, "BLOODY SERENADE! BLOOD… BLO-"  He looks down, grinding his teeth and Maya wonders if she should reach out and touch him, if only to show she's still listening.  She about to do just that when Krieg's face snaps up to look at hers and he shouts, "DINNER TIME!" before bolting off into surrounding wasteland and right towards a nearby burrow.

Maya stares after him for a moment, her brain slowly processing what he's said.   _ He was trying to comfort me _ , she realizes, her cheeks heating up at the thought.  She watches as he pulls out his axe and then literally screams into the burrow as if that will somehow summon his prey.  She wonders for a moment if she should go and help him but decides against it.  Krieg probably could use an opportunity to let off some steam while at the moment, she'd much rather take some time and gather herself.  

She looks around and finding a shallow cave entrance nearby, decides it will make for a suitable camp, at least for the night.  Once she's gathered up some firewood and got the beginnings of a fire started, she settles down behind it and mediates.  Well, tries to meditate would be more accurate because between the swirl of her mind and the screams of Krieg as he chases around the skag-like creatures meant to be their dinner, she's having a hard time finding her center. After a few minutes of trying to clear her mind and find peace, she gives up and settles for just watching Krieg. Watching as he runs and flails, his axe just missing its target each time, his arms and back rippling as he works.  

Aim has never been Krieg's strong suit but he doesn't normally miss this much so Maya's starting to wonder if something is wrong when out of nowhere, a very large version of whatever Krieg is hunting appears over a nearby hill, letting out a deep bellow that seems to shake the ground.  Krieg gives up his pursuit of the smaller ones and roars back, shaking his axe in challenge.  Maya stands up and reaches for her guns in one motion, taking a few steps to close the gap when Krieg shouts at her, "PRETTY LADY STAY," and she stops dead in her tracks, surprised by how cold it is not right next to the fire.

_ What could he be thinking? _ she wonders.  It's not that she doesn't have faith in his skills; it's mostly that there's no need for him to go it alone and that his longer fights usually result in him getting pretty injured. She frowns, thinking it over and then switches her SMG for a sniper rifle she can use at this range.   _ Just in case. _

It turns out her concern is mostly unwarranted for once as Krieg easily wins the fight when the beast goes to swallow him whole and Krieg responds by throwing several grenades and his axe down it's throat.  The explosive force tears the beast apart, raining blood and large meat chunks down upon the nearby area and unfortunately, Krieg.  At least she knows now why he didn't want her to get any closer before. Unconcerned by his own literal bloodbath, he picks his axe out of the gore and stores it away.  Then after looking around at all the viscera around him, he grabs a sizable piece of the beast off the ground and with arms outstretched, rushes back over to present it to her.  

"Too tall," he growls, shaking the now clearly torso sized piece of meat a little as he holds it out to her.

"Thanks for catching us some dinner," she says, looking at the meat and then smiling up at Krieg.  "You're probably going to need to cut that up a bit smaller so it will fit on the pan though."

Krieg just growls, shaking his head and the meat at her as if she's missed something crucial so she looks again until she sees it; while the meat from the smaller versions of these beasts is a purple-y brown, this meat is a brighter red color.  "This looks a lot more like normal meat," she says, smiling again, "Thanks for remembering what I said earlier."

"SPLAT," he shouts before throwing the slab of meat down onto the floor of the cave and starting to wail away on it with his axe.  

Maya takes the large pan she has out of her digistruct unit and then sets it on the already low fire.  A minute later, Krieg is tossing chunks onto the pan until it's full.  He grumbles but keeps chopping away at the main piece until the entire thing is a bunch of uneven but cookable steaks.  He looks from the pile of raw meat and over to the pan and then squats down next to the fire, narrowing his eye at it.

"I'll make sure to not overcook yours," she says, taking a long fork and turning over one of the monster steaks, "Promise."

He doesn't move though, he just keeps staring until a few minutes later, he reaches out and grabs for one of the still mostly raw ones.

Maya gently swats at his hand with her fork. "Don't do that.  I know you won't get sick but you gave them to me to cook so I'm going to cook them."  She tightens her lips, feeling a little bad for scolding him even if she only does it because she's worried and pretty sure that even his digestive track isn't actually made to consume raw meat.  "You never know," she says, bumping her shoulder against his, "you might like it better cooked."

Krieg switches from brooding at the steaks to staring at Maya, his one eye blinking back at her.  She smiles, feeling her cheeks heat up under his scrutiny until a strong wind blows into the cave and she feels the sprinkle of water droplets on her face and side.  She turns away from looking at him to check outside and sure enough, it's raining. 

"Glad I put the fire in-" Maya starts to says when Krieg bolts past her and out into the rain.  She watches him for a minute as he stomps his legs and shakes his arms in a sort of dance.  She smiles and turns her attention back to their dinner, taking a steak off the pan and setting it on a plate.  She just about to do the same to another when she feels a large, wet hand grab her arm and tug on her gently.  "Krieg, it's wet out there and I'm cooking," she says, turning to shake her head at him.

"Stormy lady," he growls, pulling on her wrist more emphatically this time.  She sways a little with the force, watching as his eye looks at her almost pleadingly and sighs.  A little water never hurt anyone.

"Alright," she says and he visibly lights up, pulling on her arm even more than before.  "Just let me," she says, using the arm he isn't tugging on to shift the pan off the fire, "okay done."  

And with that, Maya stops resisting and they're off into the storm.  Her first thought is that it's colder than she expected, followed closely by the thought that her armor is going to chaff something awful when it's wet.  She's starting to think she's just straight up lost her mind when she looks up from the hand that still holding hers to the rest of Krieg and against all odds, he looks happy.  A genuine, soft kind of happy she never could have imagined she'd see on him when she'd met him all those months ago.  There's a bounce in his step and he keeps turning around as if to check if she's still there even though they're touching and Maya's heart is warm and tight in her chest.  _ Not crazy _ , she thinks,  _ just smitten _ .

Once they've reached a spot about a few minutes from the cave entrance and are both soaked to the bone, Krieg suddenly lets go of her arm and gestures expansively at the sky.

Maya looks around and then laughs a little.  "Yeah, it's really raining out here.  What are you trying to show me anyway?"

Krieg shakes his head and arms and then gestures at the sky again, shouting, "DANCING LIFE AND BLOOD."  He pauses, grinding his teeth and grumbling then adds, "NATURE HERSELF... STRONG… beautiful… you."  He gestures again at the grey clouds, pouring rain and periodic lighting and Maya starts to blush despite the cold.  It's a poem of sorts or at least the start of one and it's about her.  When he'd called her stormy lady before, the extent of his meaning hadn't been apparent to her but now, after his words and standing here with him in the rain, she thinks she might be starting to understand. 

"My meat is fresh but now blood splatters the pretty," he says, stepping in very close and reaching up to touch her cheek.

"I uh-" she bites her lower lip and averts her eyes, "thank you, for uh saying all that about me.  No one's ever really said something that… beautiful about me before so... thanks."  She wonders for a moment what she should do, what would be appropriate but she doesn't really know.  In spite of this seeming very much like a moment out of one of those cheesy romance novels Lilith loves so much, Maya knows this is a lot more complicated than that.  She knows she likes Krieg (in several, varied ways) and she thinks he feels the same but as a man at constant war with himself, he can be hard to read.  She doesn't want to misinterpret his kindness as something more than it is and as a result, ruin what they already have.   

Krieg presses two fingers to her check and then his whole hand. She must have been quiet for awhile there because when she looks up at him, he looks worried. 

"Thank you," she smiles, "for this but I really need to change out of this armor before it permanently becomes a part of my skin."  She squeezes the hand resting on her face and turns to go back to the cave.  She hears him follow for a few splattery steps and then stop.  She turns around and he's sitting on the ground looking put out.  She thinks for a second and then says, "Come on inside too, it's raining out here."  It's not like she's planning on stripping down to her bare skin anyway.

Krieg tilts his head for a moment, growls and then shouts, "SHUT UP!" before hopping to his feet and following after her.

***

"So I think we might need some disguises", she says an hour later once she's free of her armor and all the meat is cooked and eaten.  "Today wasn't the first time people have recognized us and they haven't seemed happy to see us overall."  Today  _ was _ the first time people had openly threatened them instead of just running away or hiding but still it would be nice to get some supplies or information from some locals for once.  She looks down at her own tattoos and then up at Krieg's broad, bare chest.  "For one, we could both probably use some shirts though finding one that'll fit you is going to be tricky."  She chuckles and then pauses before saying, "I should also probably get a hat too.  This hair is a dead giveaway." 

There's one more thing she knows she should mention but even thinking about it makes her feel bad.  She's known Krieg for a few months and in all that time, she's never seen him take his mask off fully.  She assumes it's a comfort thing, one part anonymity, another security blanket and there's nothing she wants more then for Krieg to be comfortable.  It's just that right now, on this planet, no matter what the mask means to Krieg, it means violence and death to a bunch of people they need to interact with or their mission will most likely fail.  She swallows, trying to get up the nerve and then sighs.  _ I can just bring it up and if he's not okay with taking it off ever then we will figure something else out, there is no harm is asking if I'm polite about it.  We are friends  afterall.  _

She takes in a deep breath and blurts out, "That mask is pretty recognizable too.  Do you mind if I... take a look at what's underneath?"

Krieg looks at her but it doesn't look like he's seeing her really, his thoughts wholly somewhere else.  After a minute though, he reaches up and tries to tug the mask off but it doesn't go up like it had when they'd just eaten before.  The leather must have finally swollen too much for it to budge.

"I can help," Maya says, scooting close enough that she can reach the clasps and gesturing at them but not actually going for them yet, not wanting to touch this very intimate part of him without his consent.  She's very close to him here and she can feel the warmth of his leg seep into her thigh as she waits for his answer. 

After a few minutes, he growls, "Crack me open."

"Okay," she says, reaching up and touching one of the side buckles, "just give me a few minutes, this leather is really waterlogged."

Krieg is bad at sitting still, a part of him is always twitching or jerking but he seems to be trying to keep his head more even at least as she works on the buckle.  She can feel his eye on her as she works and between his attention and his proximity she can't help but blush.  A few minutes of wrestling with stiff leather later, she finally gets it free and gently lifts the mask away from his face and off his head.  

A moment later, she staring at a very scarred and yet still quite handsome face. She notices that the eye that's hidden behind the leather piece is white (probably blind) and his lips are just as lush and full as they looked at the party (the one time she'd gotten a good look at them).  She finds herself reaching out to touch a scar on his check but he doesn't pull away so she runs a finger along it gently.

"You're quite handsome really," she says, blushing as she rushes past that and pushes on to the next part, "so I'm not sure if you'd personally be comfortable like this in public but I'm sure you'd blend in just fine."  She switches from running one finger along his cheek to her whole hand, marveling at how warm and rough his skin is.  Krieg makes a low sound in his throat and pushes his face back into her hand.  She looks at his lips again and finds that they are getting closer and closer until she realizes exactly what she's doing and pulls away.

"Sorry," she says, embarrassment rushing in to replace the warm, tight feeling she'd just had in her chest.  She can't believe she'd almost kissed him.  Here he was, opening up to her and sharing a very vulnerable part of himself and all she could think about was... romance?  She wants to run, can feel as the shame makes her powers start to rise to the surface, but she breathes through her nose and tamps it down.  What is it about Krieg and her feelings related to him that makes her lose her cool so easily?  

She looks up at him for the first time since she'd nearly kissed him and he looks confused, his pouty lips drawn slightly down in a frown.   _ Shit _ , she thinks,  _ now my garbage is affecting him directly _ .  "I'm… uh," she stalls, reaching for a logical thing to say and failing, "in a weird mood.  Sorry.  Again."  

"Dancing life and blood," he says, in that low, rolling growl he sometimes uses. 

And watching that voice come out of that mouth, well, it's a little more arousing than she'd expected (which is a whole other facet of her attraction to him that she hasn't focused on yet tyvm) so she panics.  "We'll figure the rest out tomorrow.  I'll take first watch, you sleep, okay?" Then she turns her back on him, goes to the cave entrance and sits down, feeling very small and weak for the first time in a long while.

****

Krieg talks in his sleep.  It's just a thing he always does and Maya tries her best to not be rude and eavesdrop on his private thoughts while she's on watch but sometimes it's hard.  Like now it's still raining outside and the cave is small so no matter how much she tries to zone it out or even periodically read (not the wisest thing to do on watch), she still manages to catch some of it. It's an hour or so into her watch when something in particular catches her attention though.

"Deserve this.  Whatever we get really.  All our fault.  Tried to.. kiss her.  Course she's mad idiot. Just cause... love her… no right. Way too good for us…"

Maya sits bolt upright and then turns around to look at Krieg.  She's never been one hundred percent sure where this particular part of Krieg comes from but it seems to know what he knows and often says things he's already said if only a bit more directly so it's possible… She feels her heart clench in her chest, a faint hope starting to bloom there.  Maybe he does feel like she does, maybe she's been missing something obvious this whole time.  She doesn't really think about what she does next, she just gets up and goes over to wake up Krieg.

****

Krieg wakes from his dream with a start, his arms flailing and head shaking until he realizes the soft warmth on his upper arm is Maya's hand.  He stops moving immediately, worried that he may have hurt her in his disorientation.  He look down at his lap and grinds his teeth.

Somehow unconcerned with his violent waking, Maya says, "I'm really sorry to wake you up but we need to talk.  The thing is… you talk in your sleep."

Krieg look up at her and his eyes fly wide.   _ Oh shit _ , he thinks,  _ what did you say now idiot?  _

She holds out her hands and shakes her head.  "It's not bad.  I mean it is bad in that you're saying things I don't think you intend to say out loud but you don't say bad things."

_ What does she mean not bad?  What other sorts of things would we say in our sleep? _ Krieg cocks his head at her and then shouts, "GARBAGE SPOUT!"

"No," she shakes her head, "it's not like that at all." She pauses, bites her bottom lip.  "Actually, before we talk about this anymore I want to apologize for eavesdropping on you.  I never meant to really but I've overheard you a few times and it's a real invasion of your privacy and I'm sorry."

Krieg just stares at her.  Here he is, being more of a freak and rambling in his sleep and Maya is only concerned about his privacy as if someone like him who shouts things at random has much of that anyway.  Maya just looks back at him, her expression unreadable except the recurring and yet inexplicable blush she seems to keep getting.  Krieg wonders if she maybe just has a fever.

She breaks eye contact and looks down at her hands.  "Right, so you don't say bad things. In fact, you mostly say sweet things… about me actually."

Krieg eyes go wide again.   _ So that why she had to wake us up.  After you stupidly tried to kiss her earlier, she has to put her foot down about this before it gets more out of hand. _

_ " _ I'm not sure if you really mean them or if the talking-in-your-sleep you is really you or not but I thought just in case it was, I should tell you-" she finally looks up at him, pausing to bite her bottom lip, "I love you too."

Krieg feels himself freeze, his entire brain gearing down into slow motion.   _ What?  _ He thinks,  _ that's… impossible.  We're still dreaming, we have to be. _  He slaps himself across the face hard enough that his vision blurs but the pain feels real and Maya is still right there in front of him, now looking concerned.

"Oh, I said the wrong thing didn't I?  And after I tried to kiss you earlier, gods, I'm sorry I'm such a horrible friend today-"

Maya keeps talking, stumbling and embarrassed as Krieg's brain reels.   _ If we're not asleep and she looks this upset right now, then maybe…  _ He feels as if the very logic his brain runs on is being turned around.  Day is night, good is bad, beautiful things are now ugly and Maya, the kindest and most beautiful person in all creation loves him, a horrible, wretched pile of a man who no one should ever love.  His eyes refocus on what is going on around him and he realizes she's starting to cry.   _ Do something, anything to show her we love her too, _ he shouts at himself, hoping desperately to get through.   _ We don't deserve her, not for a second but we can't hurt her like this either. _

A moment later, he's jerking forward and pushing his lips clumsily to hers.  She's perfectly still and for a second, he worries he did the wrong thing and then she leans into the kiss, opening her mouth to let out a little moan.  Krieg feels like his heart is going to burst as Maya starts kissing him in earnest, her hands reaching up to touch his face and back as she does.  He lets out an answering moan, one hand coming to rest on the small of her back while the other weaves it's way clumsily into her hair. They stay like that for what feels like a perfect little eternity but is probably only a minute before Maya pulls back.  Krieg feels a flash of worry but she shakes her head.

"It's okay," she says, squeezing his hands, "I just realized that earlier, when I told you how I felt, I didn't really give you much time to answer and that was shitty of me.  So this time, just to make sure I got your answer right, I'm going to watch you and wait for as long as it takes, okay?"  

_ Oh this does not sounds like a good idea at all _ , Krieg thinks, his hands flexing gently to squeeze hers back as his head tilts in confusion.   _ If she's expecting a straight answer out of us, then we're screwed.   _ Krieg starts to feel all the happiness and warmth of the last few minutes drain out of him as the thing he wants most in the world starts to slip away.  He frowns.

Maya squeezes his hand again.  "I'm not saying I need a perfectly coherent answer, of course.  I just," she sighs and frowns, "want to make sure this is what you want."  She gives his hands one last tentative squeeze and then pulls them away.  "I love you, Krieg," she says, blushing and licking her top lip.

Krieg opens his mouth immediately, eager to answer but nothing comes out.  He grinds his teeth and growls.   _ You've got this _ , he thinks,  _ all we have to do is make our feelings obvious without just actually throwing ourselves at her and she'll get it.  _

He takes in a deep breath and tries again.  "PAIN- no," he cuts himself off.  One more try.  "VIOLEN-noo," he stops himself again, shaking his head.  

_ Come on, big guy _ , he thinks,  _ just tell her how you feel. _

He looks up at Maya and she smiles.  Suddenly, he reaches out and grabs her hand back.  Her eyes get wide but she doesn't pull away.  He glances down at her hand and squeezes it gently, growling, "Pretty lady… stormy lady…"  He looks to meet her eyes, face soft and says, "My lady?"

Maya scans him for a moment, expression anxious until she meets his eyes and starts to smile.  "Yes," she nods, a gentle chuckle on her lips, "all yours."

****

Several hours and an extraordinary amount of kissing later, Krieg is laying on the ground with a exhausted Maya resting on his chest, one of his hands set on the small of her back.   _ I think I've died and gone to heaven. _

"You know," she says, tracing her finger along a scar on his right shoulder, "I should probably be asleep but I just can't stop thinking about the time you got this."

Krieg looks down at her, trying to figure out which one she means and he finds her smiling back at him, expression wistful.

"Normally when I heal stuff, it doesn't leave a scar but maybe your body is just different."

"SWEET MEMENTOS OF MISERY," he shouts.

"Yeah," she says, kissing the one she's been tracing, "you have a lot of those.  Makes you interesting," she smiles for a second before her expression becomes more serious.  "I just-" she pauses, "the reason I remember this one specifically is because when I saw the wound and all that blood, I was… scared."  She tightens her lips. "It was completely irrational.  At the time, I already knew just how hard it was to actually hurt you and I knew I could heal you up and still I was terrified."  She traces the scar again and then looks up at him. "I probably should have realized that meant something back then but I don't really have any experience with this stuff so I didn't."

Krieg feels his heart clench in his chest.   _ Maya _ , he thinks,  _ have you had feelings for me for this whole time and I never realized it?   _ He considers for a moment that his own self loathing had possibly kept him from noticing this fact before the second part of her sentence starts to sink in.  Of course it makes sense she wouldn't have much romantic experience but the idea that he's the first person she's ever kissed or been in love with makes him feel awful.   _ You better treat her right, or I swear _ , he starts to think before he just leans in and kisses her gently on the lips and finds his trail of thought thoroughly derailed.  

Maya kisses him back, tired but smiling, hand still resting on the scar.  After a few blissful moments, she pulls away and looks down at the scar and then back at him. "Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is… I'm  _ so _ happy you're alive." Krieg starts, eyes wide and then he smiles.  And in just that moment, if only for a second, he feels exactly the same. 

**Author's Note:**

> So that's it for now! I wanted to apologize for how long it took me to get this far and to thank all of you who stuck with me. The Borderlands fandom and I have had our differences and Maya and Krieg are a challenging pair but I wanted to make sure they got the happy ending they deserve all the same so I came back to write this.


End file.
